Local tornado relief effort raises $40,800 for Oklahoma

Published: Friday, June 14, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 11:54 p.m.

A local communitywide effort to help victims of last month’s tornado in Moore, Okla., raised $40,800 in 10 days.

The money was used to buy $50 gift cards that were distributed Wednesday and Thursday to Moore-area residents whose homes and property were destroyed or severely damaged on May 20 by the EF5 tornado, which had winds of more than 210 mph.

Four employees from Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa, which helped organize the relief effort, took the gift cards to Oklahoma this week, where local officials helped them get to the victims.

“They walked through the areas and gave the cards to those in need,” said Mark Specht, controller at Nucor’s Tuscaloosa plant. “There was a lot of tears and hugging.”

Emails from one of the four Nucor employees tell the story.

“Today was a rewarding day for us here in Moore,” emailed Bryant Pate, a credit analyst at Nucor, on Wednesday. “We began on the southeast side of town and walked some of the hardest hit neighborhoods.

“There were a lot of very surprised faces and tears from the recipients. So far we have given out about ($21,000) and will be looking for some more in need tomorrow for the remaining ($20,000).

“We plan on continuing on the path tomorrow where we left off and work our way along the path of the tornado.

“So far, we have covered about half of the area that was hit, and we are seeing similar things as our experience in Tuscaloosa,” he said referring to the EF4 tornado that tore through Tuscaloosa on April 27, 2011.

“We’ve had people tell us that they have had others from Alabama help them and feel blessed by the outpouring of support from our area,” Pate emailed co-workers in Tuscaloosa. “Most are just surprised that we are giving them something without wanting something in return.”

On Thursday morning, Pate sent an email saying the day started when the fire department directed them to a woman and her son who sustained losses including cars that were totaled.

“She bought another off of Craigslist, but the person she bought it from was crooked I guess, because it got repossessed the next week,” he said, adding: “We went into her workplace at Moore High School and gave her several cards. Lot of tears there.”

The woman, Janice Hunt, sent an email to Nucor on Thursday thanking the people of Tuscaloosa for $1,000 in gift cards.

Hunt, a clerk for the Moore school system, shared her story in the email. She said she had two older used cars — one with her at work and one at her son’s house. Both sites took direct hits from the tornado, and both cars were destroyed. She said she had liability insurance.

She said bought two older-model used cars as replacements but that one was totaled in an accident less than two hours after its purchase. A cousin loaned her money to replace that car, and she said she bought a car from a woman who promised to get the title to her after the weekend. She never heard from the woman and later learned from the state that the seller had used a false name. The car had an unpaid lien, and it was repossessed.

“I have had five cars and the only one left is the one I owe my cousin for,” Hunt wrote. “The gift cards will help me because I have run my bank account dry buying cars. I needed a break and you gave it to me. You made my day.”

The Moore tornado killed 24 people, seriously injured more than 300 and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage.

A few days after the tornado, Nucor Steel and Bryant Bank set up an Oklahoma Tornado Relief Fund and asked the community for donations.

During the next 10 days, more than $40,000 was raised, Specht said. Nucor employees and people from throughout the community who made donations at Bryant Bank and online donated $30,800. Nucor Steel donated an additional $10,000.

“We were overjoyed by the generous response from the people in the Tuscaloosa community,” he said. “But this is not about us. It is about the people in Oklahoma.”

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